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Rethinking Campus Map

As a result of the "rethink" of csumb.edu back in February, Web Services has been rethinking lots of other online resources, including recruitment, graduate applications and ecommerce.

Additionally we just wrapped up our third campus-wide meeting rethinking our campus map.

We've already fixed one thing. Credit Christopher Placco, our new Associate Vice President for Campus Planning and Development, for asking the most obvious question amidst all the concerns of stakeholders.

"Where is 100 Campus Center?"

Unfortunately there was nobody in the room with enough institutional knowledge to remember the answer, because the location has never actually existed.

Background

If you are a new FedEx driver with a package to deliver to someone who works at CSUMB, the label on that parcel probably has the same address we've used for the last twenty years.

1997-1998 CSUMB Catalog, page 2.

And when you look up "100 Campus Center" on Google Maps, you would have received a variety of answers over time. Of late it took you to the University Corporation (201) if you mistakenly entered Marina or the Otter Sports Complex (90) if you correctly used Seaside.

Whether it was meant to identify an actual location back in 1994 it's been marketed since as an authoritative destination. That's lead to a lot of confused drivers crisscrossing campus, and lots of us helping them find their way.

The Fix

As a one of the results of rethinking our campus map, Rick Boggs, our Geographic Information Systems Analyst in Campus Planning & Development, has successfully relocated 100 Campus Center to the geographic center of campus when you visit Google Maps.

100 Campus Center, Seaside CA 93955-8001

This alone was a great takeaway, because changes to Google Maps are crowdsourced and nobody at the university could just call them up and demand changes with authority. But Web Services has a few tricks left and we worked with Rick to tilt the scales (i.e. we helped create a page in CP&D he could reference with official building name changes).

The Future

As a result of our last meeting and our ability to make changes in Google Maps, AVP Placco asked that we officially relocate 100 Campus Center to Parking Lot 97, just south of the Alumni & Visitor's Center.

This would enable our visitors to search for us in Google Maps, park free for 30 minutes, and come inside, if necessary, to ask the front desk a question or obtain a map.

Additionally Campus Planning & Development intends to install an additional physical map at the entrance of the lot, so visitors have something to refer to when leaving.

We all agreed to add a unique and short web address (e.g. csumb.edu/visit) to that physical map that leads to specific maps and information for those visitors to navigate campus.

And we've removed any reference to 100 Campus Center from the official map.

Switching the body text to a sans serif font increases legibility, which is a measure of how easy it is to distinguish one letter from another. Characters in a sans serif typeface don’t have the tails that serif typeface characters have, which adds space between characters making them easier to read.

Changing the header font to a wider sans serif typeface improves legibility because header characters are no longer compressed, which makes characters difficult to read. We also adjusted the font size of all headers to improve readability, which refers to how easy it is to read words, phrases, blocks of copy such as a book. With…

On Monday, May 22, 2017, Web Services will improve its editor used to create content in csumb.edu.

This will be the first significant improvement to the editor since we launched the last redesign in February 2015.

In addition, we will provide some significant updates to how we create and display key elements, including:Improving how events get made, shared across campus, and displayed on the page.Enabling the ability to "clip" content from one CSUMB site and used on another.Improving how news is displayed on a page.Introducing several new content blocks that will provide more functionality.
Test the new editor
You can test the new editor on a separate site with duplicated content. Our internal user experience team is testing as well and we encourage you to play with it until it breaks. Then tell us about it at webservices@csumb.edu

We will also hold presentations at upcoming Technology Open Labs starting May 5 and running through May 19. Each lab will hold a presentation at …

Coming on Monday, May 22, when we go live with the new editor , you will see a new editing block called “clipping.”

You will be able to clip individual blocks on a page and insert them into your own page. This allows you to publish content that belongs to someone else, and when they update it, the content updates on your page as well.

Screenshots
To start clipping start by adding the clipping block to the page where you want the content of another page.

After adding the clipping block, begin clipping by clicking the begin clipping button.

After clicking "Begin clipping" you will now be in clipping mode. You can navigate to the page with the content you want to clip by using the site's navigation or if you already know the URL you can enter the full URL.

When you are on the page you clip by clicking the "clip part of this page" button to be able to select the blocks you want to clip from the page.